Newest Recipes

Foodie Vocab #22 – Macerate

Every week at Chew on That, we test your foodie vocabulary by quizzing you on a new foodie word and supply delicious recipes to match!

This week’s word is: Macerate (verb). Pronounced: \mas-uh-reyt\

Please choose the most appropriate definition for Macerate:

a) Another term for chewing your food, digesting and swallowing it.
b) A device or method for removing the skin from chicken or other poultry.
c) Adding liquid or flavoring to fruit, often seen as a direction for adding liqor or sweetener to berries.
d) The process of soaking foods in a seasoned, often acidic, liquid before cooking.

If you chose c) adding liquid or flavoring to fruit, often seen as a direction for adding liqor or sweetener to berries, then you are correct!

A close relative of marinating, macerating is adding liquid or flavoring to fruit to break it down into a softer consistency. You often see it as a direction for adding a liquor or sweetener to berries.

Sugar can also be used to break down the fibrous nature of fruit and is most commonly used in Strawberry Shortcake. This is a great way to take seasonal berries and make them last longer as the liquid helps preserve the fruits as well.

Just this last weekend while shopping for Easter, Strawberries were on sale so I decided to use a whole batch of them for our Quick & Easy Strawberry Shortcake. Once you’ve made it up you can serve it on either short cake, pound cake or a plain sheet cake. I used angel food cake as it has a lighter flavor that doesn’t overwhelm the strawberries.